Friday, October 02, 2015

It was a banner day on Manaslu yesterday where all of the hard work and patience from the past few weeks has finally paid off. Meanwhile, over on Everest, the second summit push is underway.

According to the Himalayan Times, more than 73 climbers have now summited Manaslu, which is a dramatic leap in numbers since we reported on the first successful summits of the year yesterday. On Wednesday, 15 members of the Seven Summits Treks team topped out in good conditions, and yesterday several more squads followed suit. A total of 58 people reached the top yesterday, of those 38 were foreign climbers while 20 were Sherpas working in support of the commercial teams.

This success comes after a number of large teams – including Altitude Junkies, Adventure Consultants, and Himalayan Experience – abandoned the mountain last weekend when conditions were not quite so conducive to climbing. These summits mark the first success on an 8000 meter peak in Nepal since the earthquake back in April.

Meanwhile, over on Everest the second summit push has started. According to various reports, Nobukazu Kuriki has left Base Camp on the world's highest peak and has started back up the hill. He is expected to reach Camp 2 today and is eyeing a final push to the top next Tuesday, October 6.

Unlike his summit bid last week, the Japanese climbers is going up alone this time. A support crew followed him to C2 on his first attempt, but almost everything he needs for the ascent is already in place. He is climbing without the use of supplemental oxygen, which makes things more challenging at the higher altitudes, but after reaching 7700 meters (25,262 ft) he should be more acclimated to conditions this time around.

Yesterday, Kuriki shared some information about his route on Facebook and it seems he will stay off the Lhotse Face as much as possible to avoid avalanches. Also, when he reaches Camp 4 he intends to spend a day breaking trail, before descending back to his campsite for a rest before heading up to the summit. Hopefully this time conditions will be better and he'll actually get a crack at the top.

Finally, over on Dhaulagiri a team of climbers led by French mountaineer Yannick Graziani is working on their acclimatization rotations, although the weather is once again not being very cooperative. According to a dispatch sent out yesterday, the team reached 6100 meters (20,013 ft) but are now forced to camp on a very small ridge. Hopefully they'll get a chance to climb higher soon, as the 8167 meter (26, 794 ft) peak won't be an easy one to summit this fall.

That's all for now. We'll be watching Everest closely over the next few days. Hopefully we'll get word of Kuriki's success early next week.